Alternate Meetings - Reversed
by Christy - Flare
Summary: Inspired by the story "Reality", this is a hopefully more realistic take on what would happen if a Whovian landed in the Whoniverse than the usual stuff.
1. WHAT!

A/N: This story was inspired by LovelyAmberLight's wonderful fic, "Reality". Still using the borrowed idea from my last Who fic.

If anybody can think of a better title for this story, tell me please.

This is NOT a continuation of Alternate Meetings. It's what happens when my character lands in the Whoniverse, instead of the Doctor landing in hers. This will therefore be a much longer story, quite possibly involving more than the Tenth Doctor. Maybe. Let's just see where this story goes.

Edited with help from emptyvoices, author of yet another realistic attempt at a story in which a Whovian is somehow trapped in the Whoniverse.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. If I did, Journey's End would not have ended like it did.

* * *

Ooh! Fancy, shiny, spinny room!

Ooh, TARDIS console!

And is that Rose? And the Tenth Doctor?

Are they saying something?

Am _I_ saying something?

Why am I so dizzy?

I'm usually not dizzy in dreams!

Is this a dream?

Ooh, the room's spinning faster!

Huh?

Something important.

Something I gotta say.

What should I say?

Why should I say something at all?

Did I plan for this?

What is this?

Why are there so many questions?

Or is there only one question?

Oh, right. Words, words, words.

Or maybe one word?

To who?

Doctor Who?

Oh! The Doctor!

I'm stumbling.

I was standing?

What's happening?

The Doctor's so close now.

I should really say something.

Whiteness and blackness creeping in.

Hands coming up!

I have to say it!

"Foreknowledge," I hear myself say, but I don't know why I said it.

Then whiteness and blackness.

Then falling.

Then nothing.

X-X-X

"What," said the Doctor tonelessly as a girl suddenly appeared in the TARDIS console room in a big flash of white light.

She looked to be about five feet tall with long, wavy light brown hair and was wearing nothing but a blue spotted nightgown.

She was also swaying dangerously.

She managed to whip herself around, nearly toppling over in the process.

Her eyes were glazed over.

She squinted at a very bewildered-looking Rose.

She looked confusedly at her and mumbled, "Rose?"

"_What!_" said the Doctor a bit louder. How could she possibly know Rose?!

Then she squinted at _him_!

"Doctor?" she mumbled confusedly, tilting her head to one side.

"WHAT!" shouted the Doctor. Who was this girl?!

"Doctor, who is she? What's going on?" asked Rose, eyes wide and looking ready to run.

"I don't know," he answered, keeping his eyes on the intruder. "But I'm going to find out."

He sounded determined.

The girl swayed some more.

"Doctor, I don't think she's going to be doing a lot of talking anytime soon. She looks like she'll topple over any second now!" said Rose with a hint of worry in her voice.

"I know," he replied, thinking fast. "Help me get her to the medbay. Then we can focus on stabilizing her while getting some good scans of her in the process. If we can get her coherent, maybe she can give us some answers."

Rose nodded.

They both slowly made their way towards the girl, trying not to startle her, though her eyes seemed to be mostly glued to him.

She suddenly stumbled back a bit.

"Whoa there, miss. We're not going to hurt you. Relax," intoned the Doctor, putting the slightest bit of suggestion into his voice to help smooth things over while putting his hands up in a non-threatening manner.

She swayed some more.

Almost there.

She looked blearily up at him, breathed out the word, "Foreknowledge," and promptly collapsed.

The Doctor caught her just in time.

"Is she alright?" asked Rose worriedly from a foot away.

He shifted the girl in his arms so that he could check her pulse. It was erratic.

Shifting the girl so that he was fully carrying her, he replied, "She's alive, but we better get her to the medbay fast, or things could go very badly for her. Come on!"

And with that, the two of them ran off towards the medbay, the Doctor still pondering, amongst other things, why the last word out of the girl's mouth was "foreknowledge."

Did that mean she was from the future?

Or something else?

One thing was for sure, and that was that this girl was a mystery.

A mystery that may very well be dying.

The Doctor hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Always hated people dying, him.

So he ran.

Ran and hoped.

It was all he had.

* * *

A/N: Bad, good? Review!

Ok, so this chapter was supposed to be longer originally, but this was just too perfect a place to stop.

Would love to see reactions to the first bit of this chapter, so please add that to your review.


	2. Saving the Mysterious Girl

A/N: And here's chapter 2! Chapter 1 has been edited with help from emptyvoices. I also added a couple of lines. So give it another read, please.

This kind of thing where scenes are repeated from other points of view should only last until my character is coherent, just so you'll actually know what's going on. So by next chapter, basically.

Also, since this chapter might be a bit long, I'll be posting the next chapter with it as a peace offering. And sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out.

* * *

Lights.

White room.

Noises.

Voices.

A face?

Doctor?

Blue light.

Then pain! Burning, tearing, horrible pain!

And screaming! So much screaming.

Something cold on my head.

A hand?

A voice.

_Sleep._

And nothing.

X-X-X

The Doctor hadn't moved this fast in a very long time.

In the space of just thirty seconds, he had the girl on a bed, had the scanners running every possible scan he could think of, started up the medicine replicator, and put his brainy specs on in a nervous habit.

Then next thirty seconds were spent checking her vitals and scan results.

He barely registered Rose standing by the door gaping at him.

"I thought you said you weren't a medical doctor, Doctor," he heard her say accusingly as he scanned over the incredibly erratic life sign readings the scanners were showing.

"I'm not," he said absently. "But you pick up a lot in 900 years."

Any response she had was cut off by a frantic alarm from a scanner.

Turning it off, he looked at it and was completely dumbfounded.

There, on the screen, was a continuous scan alternating between showing nothing... and showing Void particles.

He'd never seen anything like this in his life, and that was saying something.

It was like she'd been shoved through the Void through a comb.

Or in a cage.

Either way, no living being should go through the Void without proper shielding, and whatever was keeping the Void particles from clinging to her properly clearly wasn't enough.

Suddenly, the girl stirred, and her eyes opened halfway.

She shouldn't be conscious in the state she was in.

He brought out his sonic screwdriver and scanned more closely for any Void energy attached to the fluctuating particles.

Oh dear. She was positively BRIMMING with it.

That explained a lot.

Then she started screaming.

And alarms started blaring.

Dang it! The energy was trying to neutralize her!

Her being awake plus all the scanning energy must have done something to the Void energy that she seemed to be imbued with!

He ran around (through Rose's cries of "Doctor, DO something!") turning off all the scanners and was about to reach for a sedative when he stopped.

He didn't yet know if she was allergic to anything.

There was only one relatively safe way of making her lose consciousness, but her warning prickled at the back of his mind.

_"Foreknowledge.__"_

He would have to do it quickly so as not to pick up anything by accident.

He steeled himself, walked over to her, put a hand on her head, concentrated, and sent out a quick, but powerful, command.

_"Sleep."_

The girl's eyes rolled up in her head, and she went limp.

The alarms stopped.

Good. That meant that Void energy wasn't leaking out of her anymore, which meant that she would be relatively stable for a while.

As he sonic-scanned her head to make sure he didn't accidentally damage something, he heard Rose's voice.

"Doctor, what did you just do?" she asked, voice wobbling.

"Put her to sleep," he replied somewhat absently while looking at the results.

He winced.

Oh, he had work to do after this...

"How?" asked Rose, who the Doctor noticed was eyeing him warily.

He tapped his temple and replied, "Telepathy. Has its uses. I try not to use it too much."

"So you can just do that? Touch someone's head and make them go to sleep?" asked Rose nervously.

Hoo boy. This was why he avoided using his telepathy as much as possible. Well, it was _one _of the reasons. Non-telepaths almost always reacted badly.

Not to mention Rose's reaction when she found out about the TARDIS' telepathic translation circuits. He deliberately tried avoiding the topic after that.

No avoiding it now, though.

"Yes," he replied. Seeing Rose's eyes widen in something resembling fear, he added, "But I don't _use _it all that often! Only in emergencies or with permission. This was an emergency. Her conscious energy was activating the Void energy inside her and killing her! And I didn't have time to scan for possible allergies, so a physical sedative was out of the question. What was I supposed to do?"

She didn't answer, instead thinking about it a bit before pulling her face into a stubborn pout that screamed, 'I don't like it, but you're right, though I'll never admit it.'

He sighed and pleaded, "Look, can we talk about this later? This girl isn't out of the woods just yet, you know. If I don't get that energy out of her, she will never wake up."

She stared at him a bit longer before reluctantly nodding.

"Good," he replied. "Now, I'm going to need your help. Not a lot of energies can neutralize Void energy, let alone draw it out, but thermal and magnetic energy is probably the best to use on something living, considering it's easier to keep the levels of heat and magnetic resonances non-lethal, so I'm going to need you to warm her up while I set up the mag-clamps for this."

When she nodded, he pulled out a box of warming pods and put it beside the girl.

He turned to Rose and instructed, "Put these pods all over her body directly onto the skin. Try to keep them at least a hand away from each other, or they might cause a burn. Your own body heat will activate them. If they glow orange, tell me."

She nodded and set about following his instructions while he rummaged around trying to find some decently sized mag-clamps.

He found them and was just finishing the necessary modifications when Rose called out, "They've turned orange!"

He carried over the mag-clamps and began hanging one while saying, "All right, that means they've gotten her temperature the same as yours. We need them to get it 10 degrees higher. We won't keep it that high long enough to kill her, so don't worry. Now, tap each pod once, wait ten seconds, then do it again. That'll stabilize her temperature at the right heat for this to work."

As she complied, he fitted the other mag clamp on the other side of the bed and adjusted both clamps so that they were on either side of the girl and pointing at her.

Then he got Rose to help him turn the girl over onto her side, waited 1 minute for the warming pods to finish their work, then turned on the clamps.

He then set up a small scanner set up to only scan for Void energy so he could see if it was working.

The scanner screen showed tendrils of energy effervescing off of the girl and into the mag-clamps.

Good. He'd just have to keep an eye on her until it was done to make sure nothing went wrong.

Rose mumbled something about getting something to eat before disappearing into the corridors.

A full hour passed before Rose came back, and by that time, the Void energy coming off of her had gone down to a few wisps here and there.

"How's she doing?" Rose asked tentatively.

He spared a glance at her before turning back to the screen and replying, "Almost got all the Void energy out of her. Once that's done, I still need to fix all the damage it's caused."

"Is it a lot?" she worried.

"I'll be able to properly tell after I can safely scan her again, but probably yeah..." he mumbled in response, rubbing the back of his neck again.

"But you can fix her up, yeah?" she asked hopefully.

"Most probably."

"Most probably?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, brain damage is always a tricky thing, and, uh, I _might_ need to go into her mind to fix things..." Here, he looked up at the ceiling nervously.

"You can do more mind stuff than that sleep thing you did before?" She sounded nervous and curious at the same time.

"Yes, but I won't use it unless there's no other way to wake her up. Now, this might take a while, so maybe you could go get a book from the library or something?"

He really didn't want to explain everything right now.

Rose just raised an eyebrow at him, said, "Well, call me if you need a hand," and promptly left the room when he nodded.

Another five minutes passed before the Void energy finally left the girl's body completely. He even checked with the sonic screwdriver to be extra sure.

Now that the heat from the warming pods wasn't being drawn out by the Void energy anymore, he had to turn them all off and remove them before she suffered permanent damage.

So he did.

He then proceeded to turn all the scanners back on and removed the Void energy-imbued mag-clamps.

Sending the TARDIS a message for her to alert him if anything went horribly wrong, he proceeded to haul the mag-clamps to the console room, where he set a course for the nearest galactic black hole, the Milky Way's.

When he arrived, Rose, having noticed the ship moving, popped her head in through the door and asked, "Where'r you goin'?"

He looked up and responded, "I've got to get rid of the Void energy properly, and the best way to do that without a space-rending explosion is to toss it into a supermassive black hole, one of which is at the center of every galaxy, since the sheer amount of gravitic forces in the things cancel out any explosion that might occur. The mag-clamps are full of the energy now, so they're going in."

Rose just stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head and mumbling, "Okay then," before leaving.

Great. If she let it go that fast, she must still be thinking about the whole telepathy thing.

He sighed.

Oh well, one problem at a time, right?

Sighing again, he picked up the clamps, opened the door to outside, and tossed them out, watching them get swallowed by the black hole.

Then he went back to the medbay to check the scan results.

Oh dear.

Heavy arteriosclerosis, various bacterial infections, an absolute horrid excuse for a digestive tract, minor scoliosis, high levels of Clostridium toxin, lots of burnt bits from the Void energy, ovarian cysts, anemia, minor brain damage with lots of crossed wires, and a cold.

Not to mention the current metabolic crisis and genetic markers for mild Asperger's Syndrome.

Hoo boy, did he have work to do.

At least she wasn't allergic to anything. Well, nothing that humans usually weren't allergic to, anyways.

The metabolic crisis was currently a bigger problem than the potential mental collapse, so he would deal with that first.

Unfortunately, pretty much all of her pre-Void-existing conditions were just aggravating or being part of the problem, so he'd have to deal with the whole lot at the same time.

He sighed and started prepping some nanomeds and internal body cleansing solutions.

Then he injected the nanomeds into the girl and set up a cellular regenerator pallet to ignore her clothing so he could avoid undressing her.

By the time that was set up, it was time to inject the cleansing solutions, which not only would detox her entire body, but would also clear out the nanomeds.

After he injected them, he picked her up and carried her to the loo.

This was going to be messy.

He got her sat down and propped up without exposing anything private.

He then set the toilet to auto-flush and hugged her tight to keep her still through the initial spasms.

After they stopped, he waited two minutes to be sure, then propped her back up again and considered his next move.

Should he try healing her mind now, or should he wait for her body to finish the cleansing process first?

He'd given her a pretty large dose of the solutions, so she'd be here awhile, and the potential mental collapse still had to be dealt with.

The remaining spasms shouldn't be hard enough to dislodge him from her mind via loss of contact, and it wasn't like there was anything else he could do now.

However, he still had to figure out how to effectively heal her mind without accidentally seeing any memories that might contain dangerous foreknowledge.

Going in looking at only the structure of the mind was easy; not receiving random bits of information was not, especially if any memories were damaged.

Her Asperger's Syndrome should make things easier on him, since it would make her mind more ordered than that of an average human, even though her genes suggested a mild version of the disorder.

Still...

He sighed. He'd just have to do the best he could.

He flexed his fingers, took a few deep breaths, and centered himself before finally placing said fingers onto the girl's temples and letting their foreheads meet.

He did his best to sort of mentally blindfold himself before tentatively making mental contact.

When no thoughts randomly flew out at him, he felt around a bit.

All right, the main structure seemed to be relatively undamaged and there weren't too many holes for stray thoughts to flow through, so he put a temporary block on them and risked a peek.

Whew. Not as bad as he thought.

For one thing, he could easily discern what this mind was originally supposed to look like, and for another, the section involving memories looked remarkably intact.

It was a bad sign, however, that there were barely any thoughts being produced in here.

He determined that the source of the problem was a big lack of connection from her memories to the rest of her mind.

He could fix that, but he'd have to do it last, not only because of the foreknowledge risk that comes from releasing all those thoughts, but because with the damage to the smaller structures in her mind, said thoughts would not flow properly, making it even harder to fix the problematic structures.

He gave a mental sigh and got to work, grateful that at least there was an order to this mind's original state, albeit not quite as ordered as he expected from one with her condition.

He started from the outside and worked his way in, fixing the bigger structures first before moving on to the smaller ones in each section.

He was almost done with the last section governing the balance between emotions and reasoning when he ran into an absolutely enormous tangle of pathways, the size of the thing nearly making him pull out of her mind in shock.

He had a dilemma to face now.

He didn't know how much of the tangle was originally like that and how much was caused by the brain damage.

To find out, he would have to untangle the whole thing and look for some telltale marks.

However, some of the original knots would likely have had negative effects on the girl. If those knots were integral to who she was as a person, he would have to actually redo the knot, which he really didn't like the idea of.

He mentally paced a bit before looking back at the tangle and knew he had no choice. If he left it like this, she'd fall into a hyper-depressive state within seconds of awakening.

Rassilon, did he ever hate these kinds of choices!

He would of course have to tell the girl everything he had done and offer to remove the original knots after she awoke, but he still hated having to do this in the first place.

And he supposed that he didn't really have to retie them as tight as they started...

He sighed again and started tugging.

After a lot of complicated maneuvering and several instances where he had to sever a pathway, untangle it from the rest, and reattach it, he finally reached the middle of the mess.

He winced.

There, tangled with the remaining pathways and surrounded by a deep sense of hatred for it, sat an OCD knot, and blimey was it a whopper.

It looked like the girl had been trying desperately to undo bits of it on her own, only to have it break and reconnect badly.

There was no question about it; the girl hated her OCD with a passion, and he just couldn't bring himself to even _think _about redoing it, even though she'd lived with it all her life, making this an integral, but hated, part of her existence.

He decided that if she really wanted it back, unlikely as that was, she'd tell him after it was gone.

He untangled the strands of the knot with great determination and found the flaw that caused the knotting to start forming in the first place.

He flattened it out and reshaped it to make it just like the rest of the pathway.

Then he sat back and checked his work.

It looked good, so he went over to the memory section, put a shield around it, and proceeded to free up the necessary connections for the memories to integrate properly with the rest of her mind.

When that was done, he retreated back to the edge of her mind, shielded himself from stray thoughts, and released the shield around her memories.

Her entire mind came alive.

He watched the threads of thought light up the pathways and, without discerning what exactly those thoughts were, information-wise, checked to make sure he didn't miss anything.

Which was a good thing, since he spotted some blockages in the emotion centers of her brain relatively quickly.

Looking closer, he determined that most of them were there originally and had a LOT of backed up emotions behind them.

Great. If he left this alone, she might have a nervous breakdown relatively soon, but if he removed the blockages, the sheer amount of backup would damage her mind all over again.

He decided on the slightly risky maneuver of removing a blockage and quickly replacing it with his own filter, the filter allowing more emotion than was strictly healthy to pass through until all the backup was gone.

He carefully monitored the emotion flow and made sure that no damage was being done to her mind from the stress.

He then removed the barriers he put and replaced them with new ones that still restricted her emotions, but let a slightly healthier amount through, since waking up feeling emotions that she's not used to having at normal intensity would likely cause all sorts of problems, but letting the usual amount through would just cause the original problem to return.

After making sure the new barriers weren't being fought, he went over her neural pathways again, fixing any problems he saw, whether it was caused by the extra emotional flow or not.

He did one last check to make sure everything was as healthy as it was going to get before nudging her mind into a more restorative sleep state.

Then he ensured that she wouldn't wake up until she finished healing and finally pulled out of her mind.

He came back to the real world with a hissing gasp and shook his head a bit before plopping down on his butt.

He rested for a minute before getting up, retrieving a digestive tract cleanser and distilled water from the med bay, and forcing the girl to swallow it by slowly pouring it beneath her tongue.

Half an hour later, she was internally as clean as possible, so the Doctor activated the toilet's cleansing option to get rid of any residue and carried her back to the med bay.

There, he put her on the modified cell regenerator pallet and let that do its job.

Five minutes later, he put her back onto the medical bed, flipped her onto her stomach, and used his sonic to fix the minor scoliosis before flipping her back over to help stabilize her spine.

Then, he ran a healer beam over her to fix any little problems she might have left and to make sure any harmful microorganisms on her skin were dead.

He also ran another set of scans to make sure he didn't miss anything.

Finally, he injected a nutrient solution into her arm and made her swallow a delivery pill filled with the proper types of bacteria and enzymes needed for normal human gut function to replace those lost in the cleansings.

Then, he just sat back and watched her, waiting for her to wake up and answer his many questions.

Who was she?

How did she get here, especially in such a state?

How did she know him and Rose?

Actually, thinking of Rose, where was she?

He hopped up and checked a monitor in the wall and saw that Rose was in her room, probably sleeping.

He sighed.

He had considered washing the girl to help stimulate the healing process a bit, but ultimately decided that preserving her dignity would be highly conducive to answering questions, and he didn't want to bother Rose.

If Rose was sleeping, he _really _didn't want to disturb her, so there would be no chance of him changing his mind.

So he just sat back and watched.

Nine uneventful hours later, Rose came back.

And the second she walked in, the girl woke up.

* * *

A/N: If you could just put your reaction to the first bit of each of these two chapters in your reviews, that would help. Thanks.

I considered having the Doctor accidentally getting her name from her mind, but it didn't really fit with everything else, so that idea was nixed.


	3. Waking Up

A/N: *Pushes post button with last breath, keels over and dies* *gasps back to life* MUST KEEP WRITING!

Chapter 3! Here, it's mostly my character's point of view.

Oh, and part of this chapter might make it sound like my character is going to have an easy time. Not happening. *grins*

* * *

I woke up feeling better than I've ever felt in my entire life.

I took in a deep breath and blinked sleep from my eyes before looking up.

This is not my room.

It looks like I might be in a hospital or something, judging from the bright lights, white ceiling, and a sort of mediciney smell.

Was I in an accident or something?

Then why do I feel like I've just had the best sleep of my life?

Maybe I was in a coma?

Then why do I feel so healthy and light?

"Hello," came a somewhat familiar voice from my left.

I looked over and saw the Tenth Doctor leaning back in a chair, a mostly neutral, if not somewhat curious, look on his face.

Ah, I'm dreaming.

Bit weird for a dream to be worried about accidents and comas, though, but I guess it could be carryover from a previous dream.

I slowly sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed I was on.

Woah.

The world looks so _clear _now.

Definitely dreaming.

I blinked a couple of times and shook my head.

No change.

Ugh, why can't my brain do this when I'm awake?

The Doctor leaned forward a bit and asked, "You alright?"

"Yeah," I answered, surprised. "Yeah, I am."

"You sure?" This voice came from a little farther off.

I turned to look and saw Rose standing in the doorway, looking rather concerned, but clearly unsure if she should approach or not.

"Yeah," I answered. "Just wishing my head was this clear when I'm awake."

"But you _are_ awake," she said, cocking her head to one side.

The Doctor sat up straight, lifted his chin up, and asked, "You think you're dreaming?"

Hmm. Odd dream progression, considering these two are acknowledging my comment.

Meh. I'll go along with it and see how it goes.

"Well yeah," I answered. "How else could the two of you be standing there?"

Rose opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor held up his hand to stop her.

"How do you mean?" he inquired.

Man, even in a dream it feels awkward to explain this, but...

"You're not supposed to be real. You're TV show characters."

Looks of confusion and concern came over the faces of Rose and the Doctor, respectively.

After a short pause, the Doctor asked, "Is there anything we can do that will prove to you that you aren't dreaming?"

Definitely odd for a dream, but it also meant that this bit of the dream will soon be over with.

"Telepathy," I said with a wry smile. "It never works in dreams for some odd and frustrating reason. If you can say something clearly into my mind, I'm definitely not dreaming."

The Doctor seemed somewhat taken aback by this, then seemed to latch onto part of my answer, because he asked, "Why is it frustrating?"

I answered, "I find telepathy incredibly fascinating. Always wanted to have it myself, if only for the novelty. I know, I know, a mind is a terrible thing to read and all that, but it's still pretty cool. It's frustrating that flying comes easily in some dreams, but telepathy NEVER works!"

The Doctor seemed to ponder this a bit, while Rose looked like she wanted to say something, but wasn't sure what to actually say.

Then he sighed and said, "Well, this is rather easy to prove, then, but it might not be all that safe."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. Figures. There's always something that comes up to rationalize the lack of telepathy.

He gave me a look and continued.

"The reason being that you've basically just recovered from the equivalent of major surgery..." Here he looked away and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "On your mind. By me. Via the same telepathy you want me to use again."

He looked at me nervously, and when he saw my lack of reaction, he explained, "You understand that, had I not done what I did, you would currently be a vegetable, and your mind was too badly damaged by your trip through the Void to fix any other way."

I just stared at him with an "And?" expression.

"Your mind is currently still a bit raw from all the repair work I had to do, and therefore will be sensitive to anything else I might do. I'd rather wait a day or two to do anything."

I just shrugged and said, "You only need to say one word into my mind to prove this is real. It can't be THAT dangerous, can it?"

He seemed to consider this before asking, "You're sure?"

I nodded.

He gave me a calculating look before seeming to make up his mind and got up.

"Wait!" called Rose.

We both turned to look at her.

She looked at me with a somewhat pleading look and said, "This IS real! You're sure you're ok with letting him into your head just to prove it?"

I shrugged again and smiled slightly, then said, "Well, yeah. It's the Doctor. If there's anyone I trust to go into my head, it's him, even if this was real."

She worried her lip a bit and looked back and forth between me and the Doctor a couple of times before nodding.

The Doctor looked at her oddly before turning back to me and walking up to the bed I was on.

I lifted my chin up a bit to expose my temples more, and the Doctor reached over with one hand, placing his fingers on my left one.

A sort of tingly feeling came over my skull, and a word resounded in my head, loud and clear.

_"Hello."_

To say I flipped out would be the understatement of the universe.

"H*** s***!" I swore loudly, scrambling backwards and tumbling right off the bed in the process.

"Woah!"

As I hit the floor, I realized what I just said and reflexively apologized to Heaven for swearing before promptly continuing to flip out, scrambling backwards until I hit a wall.

The Doctor approached two steps towards me before noticing the terror on my face and stopping, considering something before asking, "Are you alright?"

I just rapidly shook my head and tried to process all of this.

"How can this be real?!" I mumbled, still shaking my head with my eyes squeezed shut.

As I opened them again, the Doctor made eye contact with me and said somewhat cautiously, "Maybe you should just relax a little."

Something about the way he said it made my heart rate slow down enough so that I could think a bit straighter.

Did he just hypnotize me? After all that talk about telepathy being risky to use on my mind right now?

I shook my head again.

Whatever. I'll think about it later, maybe.

Now to figure out how this can be real.

Then it hit me. It was crazy, but so was this situation, so...

Aw, crud, I'll never be able to write fiction again...

I must have mumbled some of that out loud, because the Doctor responded with, "And why is that?"

I looked at him, startled, then considered whether or not to tell him my crazy theory.

And if so, how to go about it.

Judging from the look on his face, I had to say _something_, and I suck at lying, so...

I sighed.

"Before I explain this crazy theory of mine, I'd like to know, after my mind is stable enough for you to scan again, are you able to tell if any given idea is a result of... not-exactly-rational thought processes or not?" I started.

The Doctor gave me a contemplative look before responding, "Yes. Why do you ask? Are you afraid you might be insane?"

I winced at his word choice.

"I'm not entirely sure, actually, given the situation I find myself in, but if I'm not, the only way you'll ever believe me is if you see for yourself," I answered with a kind of half-nod.

He raised his eyebrows, but said nothing further, so I opened my mouth to continue.

Rose interrupted me, saying, "You actually okay with letting him into your head again?"

I raised an eyebrow at her and stood up slowly, leaning on the wall for support.

"Well, yeah," I answered. "In this particular case, it's in my best interests to let him in, but... Well, I trust him, especially when you're around."

"He put you to sleep earlier, with his mind. And wait-"

I sensed awkward questions about her future existence, or lack thereof, incoming, so I cut her off, turning to the Doctor. "Why?"

He replied, "You woke up screaming in agony, and your conscious mental energy was causing the Void energy you were imbued with to try to neutralize you. Putting you to sleep both stopped the neutralization and stopped you from experiencing any more pain."

"Oh," I said, nodding in understanding. "Well, that's okay, then. Sorta glad I don't really remember that."

Vague memories of pain and lights and cold came to me, so I shook my head to clear them out.

Rose looked contemplative, but didn't say anything else, so I looked back to the Doctor, who motioned me to continue with my original explanation.

"In my universe, there's a phenomenon amongst writers in which the story seems to write itself sometimes. It's powerful enough that it led a few people to make a theory where every time someone makes a decently detailed fictional world, that world comes into being, just as it was imagined. Some say that it doesn't have to be all that detailed, or even logical, but the less logical a world is, the more likely it will cease to exist beyond the point where it was created. Like if someone writes a story, but doesn't finish it, ever, that world will only exist up 'till that point in the story. Or if they do finish it, that world will not exist past the end of the story."

No change in reaction from either of them, so I continued.

"Of course, nobody takes it all that seriously, though I personally am nicer to my characters just in case. Looks like that might have been a good call. Anyways, if the theory holds true, that means there are different levels of reality, each level being fictional to the one or ones above it, so to speak, with either one at the top being the 'prime' reality, or it's one of those things that loops around so that the bottom level becomes the top level or something. It really shouldn't be possible to go from one level of reality to another, 'cause that would be really complicated, so if it's true, I'm just as fictional as you are to the higher level reality. But we're all still real. At the very least, our two universes are linked somehow, with a good bit of influence from either side to the other. Or something."

It was kinda eerie to see identical looks of disbelief on both the Doctor's and Rose's faces.

I sighed and tried to think of another way to approach this topic.

The Doctor was just opening his mouth to say something when it came to me.

"Look, this is pretty much impossible to prove from our perspective. It's like if we were on any given planet and looked up at the sky for a whole day. From our perspective, the sun we see is revolving around our planet. Without any other clues to say otherwise, the only way to know for sure would be to leave the solar system and see for ourselves that it's our planet that revolves around our sun, and not the other way around. We can't exactly leave reality and see the connections between the various multiverses, so we guess and theorize and maybe find some clues that may or may not be actual clues. The only reason I call this world fictional is because I've seen a relatively small portion of your adventures on television. So from my perspective, I either jumped realities or jumped to a universe linked to mine somehow. From your perspective, a crazy girl appeared on your ship and collapsed. And apparently the only method of determining my state of sanity is off the table for a while, so forgive me if I'm a little frustrated."

Rose just raised her eyebrows even higher, while the Doctor gave me a contemplative look.

Just as Rose was about to say something, the Doctor cut in.

"You said there might be clues about this universe's supposed fictionality? What would you consider a clue?"

I frowned and thought for a minute before answering, "Well, you know how every time you say, 'Nothing could possibly go wrong,' something goes wrong? Or when something happens that is supposed to be impossible?"

He nodded.

"And I know you've noticed how important Earth is and how unique humans are. The first happens in fiction all the time, the second is only a clue in this universe because you know so much about it, and even then, you don't know everything, so that might not even be a clue, actually, and the third... Well, anything written by humans that has humans as part of the created universe will have humans being the unique species at the center of everything. Except Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but they do it on purpose, and even then, there's a human in the middle of everything. At least, that's what I gathered from what little I read... Also, haven't you noticed that most of your Earth landings tend to be in Great Britain?"

He nodded again.

"That's where the show is filmed. Notice how Great Britain always ends up with the most important anti-alien organizations and seems to be a target for alien invasions, especially London, the main filming site."

He frowned contemplatively. Rose was frowning and looking at the ground like she was trying to figure something out.

I continued, "Also, your favourite self this time around is your fifth one, which is your actor's favourite one as well."

The Doctor's jaw dropped.

Before he could say anything, Rose cut in.

"Hold on, whad'ya mean his 'fifth one'?"

Ah. I can't be too far into Ten's timeline if she hasn't talked to him about this. But just in case she never asks...

"Um, how soon after you regenerate is this?" I asked the Doctor.

"The process just finished fifteen hours ago," he answered, glancing between me and Rose.

"So you just came back from the Sycorax invasion?"

"Yes."

"Ah." I turned back to Rose. "That thing he did, where he changed into a different shape? That was the tenth time he's done that. This is his eleventh body."

"Really? Huh," she replied, looking over at the Doctor curiously.

The Doctor who was currently clenching his jaw and staring at me with a dangerous look in his eyes.

"How do you know that?" he said dangerously.

I was confused.

"Same way I know everything else," I replied.

"You should not know anything of the Time War," he hissed.

Ah. His War incarnation. I guess even other universes aren't supposed to be able to see into the Time War. Which would sort of explain why we never saw it on the show except for the stuff in "Day of the Doctor". Still...

"I don't actually know much. Only the very end of the War was shown at all, and that's a special case involving a time loop that I'm not sure I can tell you about, even though all the events within are definitely favourable to you."

I could see the gears turning in his head as he continued to stare at me.

"Look, at the very least, our universes are linked somehow, though only one timeline was actually shown. There ARE stories about alternate timelines of this universe in my universe. And I _really _want to tell you about this particular loop."

He stared at me for another minute before saying, "If you do actually originate from another universe and haven't been to this one before, and if your knowledge of this universe is not irrevocably tied to the timeline you know of, then you can tell me. Until I can confirm these things, don't give me any foreknowledge."

"Even if there are only events in the loop that are either favourable or work out without anyone dying?" I asked.

He paused and considered for a minute before answering.

"If that's the case, you can tell me, but it has to be very detailed, and you have to be absolutely sure that I won't want to change anything once I know."

"I'm pretty darn sure," I said, grinning.

"Just think about it for a while before saying anything," he warned.

"So, if details are important, telepathy would be the best way to go in getting them, right?"

"That would be preferable, but it won't be safe for another day or two, like I said earlier."

"Yet you were okay with hypnosis," I challenged lightly.

He looked shocked, then sheepish at that and rubbed the back of his neck, saying, "Well... that was a really mild suggestion and actually safer at that level than speaking into your mind. It also had less potential for brain damage than the adrenaline shock you were at risk of having."

Ah. The proverbial rock and a hard place.

I was about to respond when Rose suddenly spoke up.

"What's all this about hypnosis?"

The Doctor and I looked at each other and back at Rose.

"Uh..." stammered the Doctor.

"Uh, have you even noticed that people tend to do what he says after he gets them to look at him?" I hedged.

She nodded.

"Well, that's him using hypnosis."

Seeing the panicked look on the Doctor's face and the slightly worried one on Rose's, I added, "But again, he won't use it unless he has to. I was about to hyperventilate and maybe faint, and he just used it to calm me down. As far as I know, he's only used it on bad guys before and maybe a few regular people who were panicking too much to tell him anything important when he was in the middle of saving the world for like the millionth time or something."

When Rose still looked a bit unsure, though somewhat accepting, I sighed and said, "Remind me to talk to you about this later, with or without him around."

She nodded and went back to looking like she was trying to figure something out.

"So how are you going to confirm if it's safe or not for me to give you any foreknowledge?" I asked the Doctor.

He turned to me, still with a slightly worried look on his face, and answered, "I can tell if you're from another universe by scanning your matter for its universal constant and comparing it to the one in this universe. I can tell if you've ever been through the Void more than once by scanning your Void matter. Determining whether or not your knowledge irrevocably linked to how events must transpire in this universe will have to wait until your mind is stable enough to let the TARDIS scan it with certain temporal scanners."

Makes sense that he would get the TARDIS to avoid touching my mind.

Still...

"Just my being here changes things a lot, even if I don't say anything and stay in the TARDIS all the time. Especially if I stay in the TARDIS all the time, actually. And I can't elaborate on THAT without probably making things worse. Let's just say that you have a _very _complicated life. So if you're not sensing huge paradoxes coming up or something, either you find a way to send me home really soon, or most of my knowledge is safe to share and I might be able to improve things a bit."

The Doctor looked at me seriously for a minute.

"It doesn't quite work like that. I won't sense a paradox unless you actually say or are about to say something you're not supposed to. It's complicated. It also depends on just how you came here. Also, did you know that the last thing you said before collapsing was 'foreknowledge'? And do you remember what you meant by that, other than the obvious?"

I frowned and tried to remember.

"I... I can't remember much," I said hesitatingly. "Just... I think it was something I _had _to say... It felt... important, somehow. I remember being worried about you using telepathy, at least before I could say it... I'm just guessing here, but it probably had to do with the time loops I know about in which you've already been part of, but haven't closed yet. There's at least two that you can't know about yet, because you WILL want to change things for sure."

The Doctor seemed to consider this before asking, "What do you remember from before you came here?"

I thought about it and answered, "I just remember going to bed. I might have been thinking about the show, come to think of it. What-if scenarios, probably."

More contemplation from the Doctor.

"Well," he said. "We won't find out anything for sure without scans, so you might as well come back onto the bed so we can get started."

He then held out a hand.

I looked at it and tentatively reached for it.

He waited patiently for me to take it.

I stepped forward and gingerly put my hand in his, noticing immediately just how cold it was.

His hand started to close around mine, and I flinched a bit, causing him to immediately open it again.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "This is just so surreal!"

"It's all right," he reassured. "No need to rush."

I finally managed to grab his hand properly, at which point he gently tugged me towards the bed.

He helped me up by using his hand as a support for me to push against, which made it easy to feel the inhuman strength he had.

"That's your new hand, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Strong," I commented.

He gave me a weird look, but left it.

As he turned to set up whatever he needed for the scans, he seemed to realize something and turned back to me.

"By the way, I never got to ask, what's your name?"

I raised my eyebrow.

"You were in my head and you didn't even learn my name?" I asked incredulously.

The Doctor looked affronted.

"I didn't read your thoughts. Was trying to avoid getting any foreknowledge at the time, and anyways, it wasn't necessary to heal you."

Oh yeah.

I conceded his point, answering, "Amber. Amber Williams."

"Well then, nice to meet you, Amber Williams," he said, grinning.

"Likewise, Doctor," I grinned back.

He chuckled a bit and turned back to his instruments.

I watched him fiddle around a bit before turning to look at Rose, who was still frowning at the ground with her eyebrows furrowed.

"What's wrong, Rose?" I asked, which drew the Doctor's attention, causing him to turn to look at her just as she looked up at me confusedly.

"Nothing, really. It's just... it feels like there's something I should remember."

I thought about my place in their timeline and realized that it was right after the Bad Wolf incident.

"What seems to be coming to mind?" I asked carefully, trying to prod her memory a bit without risking a Bad Wolf explosion, even though that only happened in fanfiction.

She closed her eyes and slowly shook her head back and forth, saying, "Just... the singing! From when I saved the Doctor. The last one. I remember singing!"

"Can you remember how it goes?" I asked, careful but curious.

"Yeah, hold on," she murmured before seeming to go into a trance.

She started singing.

My jaw dropped.

It was the Doctor's Theme of 9.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Doctor move forward and open his mouth, so I put up a hand to stop him, still with my jaw on the floor.

9's Theme seemed to start again, but as it proceeded, it turned out to be 10's.

The next and last tune nearly made me cry. It was the Doomsday theme.

She stopped singing, and there was silence for about a second before I realized that there was only one way she could know those themes.

"Bad Wolf," I breathed.

Her eyes immediately flashed gold and she intoned, "Bad Wolf," exactly the same way the Moment did in "Day of the Doctor."

Oh my gosh, I'm in a fanfiction.

The Doctor was in front of her and grabbing her by the shoulders faster than I could blink.

"Rose! You have to let go of the power before it kills you!" he practically yelled, obviously panicking.

Bad Wolf just calmly intoned, "This body will not be harmed. I hold only a tiny fraction of the power I once held, my Doctor, and when you removed what you could a day ago, you removed enough that what remained is tolerable. I hold only the knowledge necessary to keep your timeline safe and must part with it now before returning this power to its rightful resting place inside of me."

The Doctor released her and backed away, saying shocked, "But you shouldn't have that power anymore."

"I am the Bad Wolf, and I am also Rose Tyler. I create myself. The power and I are one. This body was made so that one day, the essence of humanity would bond with the Heart of Time and do what must be done."

"A literal Child of Time..." I breathed.

"Yes," said the Bad Wolf simply.

The Doctor opened and closed his mouth a few times before shaking his head and saying, "Well, you said you had knowledge you need to part with, so..."

"It is not for you. Not yet. It is for the Amber girl I brought through the Void to aid you."

The Doctor looked from Bad Wolf to me in surprise.

I opened my mouth, considered things, and said, "That... actually makes a lot of sense."

Bad Wolf turned to me.

"The events of my last song MUST happen as you have seen it. You may comfort them after the first closing, but you must not interfere."

I furrowed my brow and thought about what she meant. Last song, last song... Oh! Oh. The Doomsday theme. Aw crud, I was so hoping that wouldn't have to happen. But...

"Can the last sentence spoken be completed?" I asked her hopefully.

She smiled.

"If the right words are spoken and the right actions taken, then that is a possibility."

I grinned.

"Sweet."

Then I thought of Journey's End and asked, "What about the events of the return?"

"They can be... modified, but beware. The River must flow. See that you don't divert it."

I understood that one perfectly. I'll have to think about it later.

Any way this goes, it's gonna be awkward for somebody.

I looked down, then at the Doctor.

"Uh, Doctor? You should probably turn around and cover your ears or something. There's something I have to ask, but you shouldn't hear it yet."

The Doctor gave me a dubious look and turned it on the Bad Wolf, who just tilted her head somewhat dismissively. He flinched and turned away, walking to the other side of the room and putting on some earmuffs that he pulled out of a pocket.

I turned to the Bad Wolf and asked, "Is it safe?"

She nodded.

I hesitated before asking, "If everything goes like on the show, will you ever return?"

She smiled warmly.

"Always."

I smiled right back, tearing up.

My smile dropped as I thought of the other maddening aspect of Journey's End.

"What about Donna?" I asked somberly.

She simply said, "Follow your instincts."

"Can I warn him?"

"Only if you keep her identity to yourself until the time comes and if you watch your words."

I nodded ruefully and looked down.

"What about any other events?"

"Other than the time loops you know of and the information I have given you, all other information from your universe pertaining to this one is safe to share. The timeline you saw is not fixed."

"Does that include 'Day of the Doctor'?"

"No."

I smiled.

"By the way, did you or did you not influence the Moment?"

"I conversed with its consciousness for a short while, yes. You have seen the result."

I nodded.

"Will that change much if I am present?"

"No."

"Good. Also, I've kinda always wondered... Back when you destroyed all the Daleks around the station, why didn't you destroy all the OTHER Dalek survivors of the Time War?"

"The Doctor was too scared of what was happening to this body and distracted me. Being part human has limitations, one of which is that I need to focus to do things, and I simply did not have enough time or focus to destroy the other survivors, so I did what I could to mitigate the results of their living on. It is one of the things you will be able to help with."

I thought about this for a minute before deciding to think more about this later.

"Anything else?"

Her voice went hard and her eyes flashed as she spoke her warning.

I looked at her, shocked and scared.

I totally forgot about that particular problem.

So much for 21st century Earth...

After giving me instructions on how to protect myself, she gave me some other information that I knew I'd have to think very carefully about.

Then she lifted her head up, and I heard a sharp intake of breath from the Doctor.

I looked, and he turned around.

I nodded, and he took off his earmuffs.

"Looks like we're done."

The Doctor lifted his chin and raised an eyebrow at the glowing entity in front of us.

"Well?"

Bad Wolf turned to the Doctor and said, "The only message I have for you now is this: trust the Amber girl. She has good instincts."

And with that, the glow faded from her eyes, and she became Rose Tyler once again.

She stumbled back and shook her head.

The Doctor immediately rushed over to steady her, saying frantically, "Rose! Are you alright?!"

"M'fine," she mumbled, trying to swat him away. "What happened?"

The Doctor and I looked at each other.

"It's complicated," hedged the Doctor.

"For once, I agree with him, Rose. Especially since he hasn't had time yet to explain what happened back with the Daleks on that satellite."

She narrowed her eyes and shoved the Doctor off of her, turning to sit in a chair that I just noticed was there.

She crossed her arms and legs and said, "Well then, now's as good a time as any, yeah?"

The Doctor and I shared looks again before I motioned him to speak.

He rubbed the back of his neck and spoke.

"Weell... basically... you looked into the heart of the TARDIS and took all that power into yourself. I was about to be killed by the Daleks when you brought the TARDIS back to me and burst out of it, absolutely glowing with power and called yourself the Bad Wolf. You spread those words around to warn yourself and destroyed all the Daleks. Holding all that power was killing you, so I took it out of you. It's why I regenerated. I thought I got all the power but..."

Here, he motioned to me, who had noticed the omission of Jack's revival, but Rose's eyes were wide.

"I came back to save you, but I ended up killing you!" she exclaimed.

Both the Doctor and I immediately exclaimed, "No!' and looked at each other again.

I let the Doctor speak.

"You DID save me! If it wasn't for you, I would have died permanently!" he frantically explained.

I added, "Yeah, and if he had died permanently, trust me when I say the universe would not be around for much longer. So by doing what you did, you saved both him AND the universe."

She still didn't look happy about it, but seemed to concede it.

"So what's it got ta do with what happened a minute ago, then?"

"Basically, it's apparently impossible to separate the power from you since it was part of your creation or something. It came back for a couple of minutes to make sure I didn't screw up any timelines with what I know and then went away. Well, it's still part of you, or it sorta IS you, but with lots of power and knowledge, but it's not something you can access whenever you want, 'cause that would probably rip holes in the universe or something," I answered.

Rose opened her mouth, then considered something before saying, "Yeah, I think I remember something like that. S'like I told Mickey when the Doctor was in trouble and he asked me if I could do the same thing as I did before, and I said I couldn't."

"Yeah."

The Doctor looked intrigued but said nothing.

"So... now what?"

I looked around.

"Well, I guess we hang around until I'm okay to leave, and I try to make things better for Mister Unfortunate over here."

"Oi!"

I just gave him a look.

Rose snorted.

The Doctor just looked affronted.

"Oh come on, Doctor, bad stuff happens to you all the time."

He pouted and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, jeopardy friendly, you are," needled Rose.

He looked so affronted that we both started laughing our butts off.

By the time we stopped, the Doctor was shaking his head at us, his arms crossed and a small smile on his face.

This somehow set us off again while he turned around and started up some scans.

X-X-X

The Doctor had to admit that he had been suspicious of the entire situation until Bad Wolf manifested.

I mean, if she was the one who brought Amber over to this universe, who was he to argue?

And what kind of future had been in store for him that necessitated help from an extrauniversal human?

He sighed.

Looks like he'd have to wait for some of those answers if he didn't want to risk destroying a time loop.

Though he wasn't quite willing to accept the theory of multiple levels of reality that Amber first put forward.

It was probably some sort of psychic link between her universe and this one.

Though if her knowledge doesn't only consist of events that _must _happen, as Bad Wolf apparently said in not so many words, according to the brief telepathic contact from it (her?) telling him that it was safe to listen to them again, that means the link is to a neighbouring time track, not his definite future.

Still, there were obviously some fixed events coming up for him that he would not like, judging from Amber's reactions and fear of certain time loops.

He was both curious and feeling dread about it all, but he knew better than to try figuring it out early.

And there wasn't anything he could do about it if Bad Wolf said something had to happen.

He _was_, however, looking forward to the time loop she was willing to tell him about.

The fact that she seemed comfortable with telepathy was somewhat heartening, as it made things _so _much easier.

The fact that he couldn't risk such a detailed exploration of her mind until it had sufficiently recovered was not.

He supposed it would be safe to get the general gist of it from her, as long as he set some rules.

He could always just stay in the TARDIS until it was safe.

Still, he wondered just how much she'd seen of his life if she trusted him with her mind.

Though, he noticed that Bad Wolf never actually mentioned the show Amber claimed to see his life on, at least, not when he was listening.

Hopefully, Bad Wolf hadn't accidentally made Amber a seer, because that would complicate things quite a bit.

It wouldn't be the first time that that entity's actions had... side effects.

He thanked whoever was listening that Amber was okay with telepathy, since he could use his to check for false memories.

After he had done some more detailed scans, of course.

Thinking of telepathy reminded him of the small shock and relief he felt when Bad Wolf touched his mind to get his attention.

He hadn't felt that kind of touch in over a century.

Maybe if he could get her to let him touch her mind...

No. Too intimate. He couldn't bear it if he had that touch only to lose it in less than a century.

He knew that he had to resist the temptation to grab that touch again with all that he had.

Otherwise he could never stop.

He sighed.

He had better get started on those scans.

* * *

A/N: There! Two chapters at once! They would've been out ages ago, but stuff just kept happening! Gah!

The idea of information from one universe not affecting another is from LovelyAmberLight and is used with permission.

If Rose's reaction to telepathy seems a little OOC, blame it on the shock and Unreliable Narrator. It'll get better next chapter. Be warned that there will be a couple of adjustment chapters so I can realistically get the reactions of everyone involved before New Earth, which will probably end up being chapter 7 or 8.


End file.
